


Thirst

by Xparrot



Category: One Piece
Genre: Community: onepieceyaoi100, Dark, Ficlet Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-11-20
Updated: 2004-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-19 14:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xparrot/pseuds/Xparrot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It occurred to me I hadn't actually written any SanUso, so obviously this oversight needed to be rectified.</p><p>Post Water-7-ish.</p></blockquote>





	1. Thirst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurred to me I hadn't actually written any SanUso, so obviously this oversight needed to be rectified.
> 
> Post Water-7-ish.

A sea cook knows better than to drink seawater, no matter how long you're caught dry on the ocean. Ironic dehydration; the more you swallow the quicker you die of thirst.

Usopp's skin tastes of salt, sweat-salt and sea-salt, but now there's a different taste, and when he raises his head to look, the tears in his crewmate's eyes are spilling down his face, more than he can wipe away.

"I didn't--I didn't think you'd--not after I...it was so lonely, on the ship, without--without any of you. I didn't know it could be so lonely..."

"Missed you," Sanji says, and kisses him. Bitter salt, stronger than the sea on his lips, but he swallows anyway; that's the danger of drinking saltwater, that once you're thirsty enough to start, you'll never stop.


	2. Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Topic: Seme Usopp
> 
> I categorically refuse to take responsibility for this. Bialy's the one who suggested Usopp rape. :P

He has many reasons to return to East Blue. This had never been one of them. The deepest fantasies in darkest night, dreaming of finally becoming a great warrior, astounding everyone with his power--not even then.

He wasn't expecting to find him here, not this backwater island, this sleepy little town, so far from the Grand Line that they've barely heard of the Pirate King. Almost doubted it could be him. Not as tall as he remembered, not quite as feline-lean.

But the blades are still sharp, polished to mirrors reflecting starlight, lethal points against his throat. "You shouldn't have come. You won't ruin it for me again."

Once he would have trembled, but he's a warrior now. And those feet are not as fast as he remembered, those limbs not as strong; a twist of his arm brings him to his knees on the dirt road, bladed gloves ripped off.

It hasn't been that long, really; no silver in the black hair, sliding silkenly under his fingers as he forces the ex-captain's head down. "This wasn't why I came."

"Still a liar." Futile rasp, fruitless struggles; it's so easy to hold him down. He's almost as strong now as he used to claim to be.

"Yeah, sometimes." He's no coward anymore, but the blood pounding in his ears is deafening. "But not now."

His lip curls, even as he pants, glasses cracked and cheek pressed to the dirt. "What are you now?"

"Now," and he leans over him, "now I'm a pirate, like my father. Like my captain." The wiry form under him bucks to throw him off, and this wasn't why he came, but he bears down, until he feels those hoarse gasps heave against his chest, whispers into the straight black hair, "Like you could never be."


	3. Unaccepted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Entirely unwarranted followup to "Unexpected". Still no comedy. IC? what's that? ...don't look at me, I don't know. These things do happen.

Sanji noticed something wrong, meeting Usopp on the ship's deck. Alone together in the cabin, it's still wrong, the urgency, bruising pressure against his mouth, against his groin, wrong, but it's pleasure, too. If this is the fondness absence makes for, then maybe his crewmate should visit East Blue more often, and he groans under it.

But Usopp jerks back, shoves him away to stumble to the washroom.

Sanji follows, asks, demands. The answer is unexpected, but he remembers the name. His reply is angrier than he intends, scared fury fueled by the gut-aching chill in his crewmate's eyes. " _What'd he do to you?_ "

"Nothing." Usopp's gulping, empty laugh is the boy's he was, not the voice of the man he is now. "Nothing, not _to_ me."

When Sanji grips his shoulders, they're shaking, not with fear. Dry eyes, but the words spill like tears, until he's wrung dry, slumped against the wall.

"I'm not that kind of man," but after all these years he's still a terrible liar, if he can't believe himself what he's saying. "I wouldn't--" His hands are knotted in his sash, as if the merest brush of Sanji's skin would scald. "Even if I'm a pirate, even if I'm strong--I won't, I'd never--"

Sanji pushes against him, flesh to flesh, and Usopp shudders but there's no room for him to pull away from that heat. "I'm a pirate, too," Sanji reminds, "and you might be strong, but you're not stronger. So even if you would," and he takes those big hands, pries open the fists and molds them to the nude angles of his hips, "you never could, unless I wanted it."

"Never?" The tremours are finally ceasing, burned away.

"Never," he repeats, leans in and opens his mouth to the kiss.


End file.
